Quantifying and valuing greenhouse gas emissions impacts from non-pipeline alternatives

The briefing outlines principles for quantifying and valuing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when conducting societal benefit-cost analyses for non-pipeline alternative (NPA) utility projects. It argues that these analyses must account for all upstream and downstream emissions changes and utilize the social cost of GHGs rather than environmental policy compliance costs to determine monetary value, thereby ensuring an accurate comparison between divergent project types.

• Benefit-cost analyses (BCA) for non-pipeline alternative (NPA) projects—which include electric equipment, energy efficiency improvements, localized thermal energy networks, or alternative fuels—should account for all positive and negative emissions changes across all affected systems, specifically including both downstream emissions from fuel combustion and upstream emissions from extraction, processing, transportation, storage, distribution, and electricity generation.
• To assign monetary value to emissions changes in a BCA, practitioners should use the social cost of GHGs—estimates of damage costs to society per metric ton—rather than environmental policy compliance costs, which typically do not represent societal damage. In cases where compliance costs are already included in resource cost calculations, they should be subtracted from the emissions' monetary value to avoid double counting.

APA

Stein, C. H. E. B. (2025). Quantifying and valuing greenhouse gas emissions impacts from non-pipeline alternatives. Institute for Policy Integrity. https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/quantifying-and-valuing-ghg-emissions-impacts-from-non-pipeline-alternatives

Chicago

Stein, Chris Holt, Elizabeth B. Quantifying and valuing greenhouse gas emissions impacts from non-pipeline alternatives. Institute for Policy Integrity, 2025. https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/quantifying-and-valuing-ghg-emissions-impacts-from-non-pipeline-alternatives.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Stein |first1=Chris Holt, Elizabeth B. |title=Quantifying and valuing greenhouse gas emissions impacts from non-pipeline alternatives |publisher=Institute for Policy Integrity |date=10 July 2025 |url=https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/quantifying-and-valuing-ghg-emissions-impacts-from-non-pipeline-alternatives |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stein2025quantifying, author = {Stein, Chris Holt, Elizabeth B.}, title = {{Quantifying and valuing greenhouse gas emissions impacts from non-pipeline alternatives}}, institution = {Institute for Policy Integrity}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/quantifying-and-valuing-ghg-emissions-impacts-from-non-pipeline-alternatives}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }